Beck’s symphonies have long been regarded as among the most striking works of their kind from the mid-18th century. Remarkable for their dramatic flair, rich harmonic language and fluid, inventive part writing, Beck’s Op. 3 Symphonies (published 1762) display a rare level of compositional finish that elevates them above all but the very greatest symphonies of their time.

Whether he had to leave Germany because of a fatal duel, whether he had to leave Italy because he married his teacher's daughter, whether he settled in France because he wanted to protect his publishing rights, whether any of the many rumors about Franz Ignaz Beck (1734-1809) are true or false, it is good to have his set of Six Symphonies, Op. 1, available on disc. Composed sometime in the 1750s and published in 1758, Beck's three-movement symphonies are strongly imagined and successfully realized essays in a form that had only just come into musical existence.

This disc received the 1998 Cannes Classical Music award for "Best 17th/18th Century Orchestral Disc."

An exact contemporary of Haydn, Franz Ignaz Beck (1734-1809) was a pupil of Stamitz in Mannheim, but lived and worked mainly in Bordeaux, where he was rated highly. Documented information about Beck is meagre and the 3-page introduction is unable to date this Stabat Mater, which is reckoned his masterpiece. It failed initially at Versailles and caused something of a furore, because of his forward looking harmonic modulations; the orchestra sabotaged his instructions for extreme dynamic contrasts. It points towards Berlioz in its originalty and I fully endorse the commentator's claim that Beck is another neglected composer whose music, once heard, demonstrates, yet again, that the accepted canon of 'great' composers, with most of the others cast into oblivion, is misleading and regrettable.

CPO's Franz Ignaz Beck: Symphonies Op. 4 Nos. 1-3 is the third installation in period-instrument group La Stagione Frankfurt's outstanding series of recordings of the symphonies of Beck. Beck's symphonies are strikingly advanced for their time; he was already utilizing four-movement structures by 1760, and his symphonies are rich with the violent contrasts and explosive effects associated with the Stürm und Drang phase found in Haydn's middle symphonies and those of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Although all three of these symphonies are in major keys, they are no less aggressive and intense than the minor key symphonies that have attracted so much attention to Beck's work since late in the twentieth century. As to the virtues of this particular disc, the performance, led by Michael Schneider, is lively and enthusiastically played.

This 2004 CD from CPO completes la Stagione Frankfurt's recordings of Franz Ignaz Beck's Symphonies, Op. 3, begun in 2000 with the Symphonies Nos. 3-5, released on CPO 999 390-2. Led by Michael Schneider and featuring members of Camerata Köln as section leaders and soloists, this fine ensemble performs on period instruments and renders Beck's works in a vivid and believable eighteenth century style, fully attuned to the various influences that shaped his music. These symphonies clearly developed from ideas promulgated by the Mannheim School, but Beck also absorbed Italian and French mannerisms, so the international flavor of these pieces is noteworthy.

Faszinierende stilistische Fundgrube Noch immer bietet die Musikgeschichte Überraschungen und Entdeckungen, die einen bisher fast vergessenen Komponisten plötzlich in den Mittelpunkt rücken: Franz Ignaz Beck ist solch ein Fall. Die Sinfonien dieses „Berlioz des 18. Jahrhunderts“ sind dermaßen verrückt unkonventionell und kühn, dass man auch heute nur noch staunen kann über die „Modernität“ des zeitgenössischen Pariser Publikums, das ihm geradezu zu Füßen lag. Beck entpuppt sich als im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes fortschrittlicher und individueller „Stürmer und Dränger“, der die Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten seiner Zeit weit in die Zukunft öffnet. Von Mannheim aus über Italien fand Beck seinen Weg nach Marseille, wo seine Sinfonien sich zu wahren Zugstücken der berühmten Pariser "Concerts spirituels“ entwickelten und zahlreiche Druckauflagen erlebten.

This is the first project in a seven-volume series exploring the ‘Sturm und Drang’ movement, which swept through all art forms in the between the early 1760s and 1780s. The purpose of this movement were to frighten and perturb through the use of wild and subjective emotional means of expression.